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On March 29, the Communist Party of the Philippines, celebrating the 39th year of the New People's Army, put to task all party members and red fighters to increase the number of guerilla fronts in 173 congressional districts. That could double or triple the current guerilla fronts from the present 120-130 to a minimum of 240-260 guerilla fronts, and to a maximum of 360-390 guerilla fronts in the next two to three years. If realized, this political-military condition will send chills down the spines of Arroyo and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Also on the same day, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is currently holding peace talks with the government, issued another earthshaking political statement, asserting that without radical change, the Philippines has no chance at greatness where progress, unity, peace and understanding reign all over the archipelago.
In a roundtable discussion last February, MILF Central Committee Secretariat Chairman Muhammad Ameen said the Philippines has an economic system that is exploitative, where the needy and the weak do not enjoy level-field opportunities, stressing that monopoly practices are not only tolerated, but made legal by the present administration.
The armed Moro group said instead of addressing the problems besetting the 90 million Philippine population, the government favors the collective interest of the elites. Such a statement could be read as preparation for the withdrawal of the MILF from the current peace talks, and therefore another political headache to the current embattled Arroyo presidency.
The presidential palace did not issue any statement in response to the two armed groups' separate statements warning the administration of the bigger and bolder insurgency problem it will have to face in the next three years.
The only response was a press statement announcing the official trip of President Arroyo to Hong Kong this week to speak before an audience of big business groups and investors. The trip has been heavily criticized as a junket for the president and her close associates.
The CPP's statement on the 39th year of the New People's Army entitled "Seize the Initiative, Launch the Offensives to Reap Victories for the 40th NPA Anniversary," said the Washington-backed Arroyo presidency is engaged in wishful thinking by repeatedly announcing its plan to destroy if not reduce the strength of the communist guerillas on or before 2010.
The CPP said history has shown that from the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos up to the current presidency of Arroyo, the reactionary and mercenary government and its armed forces have failed to eradicate the insurgency problem.
It said the Manila governments from Marcos to Arroyo have merely succeeded in generating conditions for the growth in strength and advance of the NPA and other revolutionary forces in the Philippines. The party said Arroyo's counter-insurgency programs, Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2, were also a complete failure in eliminating the communist movement.
The CPP said: "Oplan Bantay Laya 2 failed miserably in its objective in 2007, as Oplan Bantay Laya 1 has failed in 2001-2006, to concentrate the reactionary armed forces and regional mobile police units in 600 barangays in some 10 to 12 guerrilla fronts in six regions all at the same time in order to clear barangays of the NPA, hold them for an extended period and develop them against the people's army.
"The military and police forces could hardly occupy 300 barangays at every given time and have failed to destroy a single guerrilla front of the NPA. The enemy simply does not have enough troops and resources to cover extensive areas of the country. The NPA can freely move in at least 80 percent of Philippine territory."
The Philippine military has been churning out press releases from its main headquarters in Manila, saying is has been successful in reducing the strength of the communist guerillas by dismantling the guerilla fronts of the NPA.
But reports from the field say the exact opposite. According to the CPP, the NPA has easily moved in the wide gaps in the deployment of enemy brigades between enemy battalions, between companies and between platoon-size special operation teams.
The communist guerillas have been able to maneuver in order to be on the exterior line in concentrating the red fighters for tactical offensives to wipe out enemy units. It has been able to disperse and shift position in order to evade the enemy with superior strength and at the same time secure a position for launching offensives against government troops.
On the other hand, government soldiers are regularly withdrawn from guerrilla fronts, either because of the need to be deployed in other guerrilla fronts where the NPA is launching more frequent tactical offensives or in Moro areas whenever the level of armed conflict rises there. Whenever state security forces vacate an area, the NPA disperses its units in order to do mass work and further develop the mass base and mass support, according to the CPP statement.
Instead of winning the war, the Arroyo presidency and the pro-Arroyo chain of command in the AFP have perpetuated human rights violations under Oplan Bantay Laya. The CPP said the Arroyo government has carried out mass intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detention, massacres, assassinations and torture, enforced disappearances, rape, arson, food blockades and forced evacuation of rural and indigenous communities to serve the landgrabbing interests of foreign corporations, mining companies, high bureaucrats and local tyrants.
This assertion of massive human rights violations of the Arroyo government is repeatedly echoed by various human rights organizations like the London-based Amnesty International and the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Center. The same observation has been continuously stated by the European Union, and even the United States, which forced the U.S. Senate to cut down military aid to the Philippine government unless President Arroyo improves the human rights situation across the country.
A more comprehensive and objective report on the condition of human rights tied to the current counter-insurgency campaign was done by U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, who said that the voluminous cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of leftwing activists are part of the counter-insurgency policy of the Arroyo government.
There's no doubt Arroyo is going to face bigger and bolder offensives from the CPP-NPA in the next three years. There's a strong possibility that the MILF will withdraw from the ongoing peace talks and resume war with the Arroyo government because of the administration's persistent moves to give the Moro people only nominal independence, instead of genuine autonomy.
Arroyo has no one to blame but herself. She rejected the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines' call for the resumption of peace talks, and instead followed the military prescription and poured in an additional14 billion pesos (US$336.5 million) for the escalation of the war. Arroyo has defied the public's call for peace talks and instead adopted the games of the generals.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His Web site is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
